Long-Term Effects of Ipragliflozin on Diabetic Nephropathy and Blood Pressure in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: 104-Week Follow-up of an Open-Label Study
by Jeevan Nagendran et al.
Journal of Clinical Medicine Research, 2018; Aug, 10(9):679-687.
In our previous study, we investigated the efficacy of ipragliflozin, a sodium-glucose cotransporter (SGLT) 2 inhibitor on diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes and demonstrated that ipragliflozin significantly improved diabetic nephropathy in addition to reducing HbA1c and body weight. Herein, we conducted post-trial monitoring to determine whether these lowering effects on blood glucose and body weight or the beneficial effects on diabetic nephropathy were maintained long-term (104 weeks) after starting ipragliflozin treatment.

Possibility of a New Therapeutic Strategy for Left Ventricular Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes

by Masaya Sakamoto et al.
Journal of Clinical Medicine Research, 2018; 10(11):799-805.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) substantially increases the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart failure (HF), due to complications such as hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia based on metabolic syndrome, which plays the central pathological role in HF. A reason is that T2DM causes left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction beginning in the early phase of the disease, which in turn increases the risk of development of HF independently of the control of blood glucose levels, blood pressure or the presence of coronary artery diseases.

Relationship Between the Intraperitoneal Stent Length in Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Hepaticogastrostomy and Surgically Altered Upper Gastrointestinal Anatomy in Patients With Malignant Biliary Obstruction

by Koichiro Mandai, Koji Uno, Kenjiro Yasuda
Gastroenterology Research, 2018;11(4):305-308.
Endoscopic ultrasound-guided hepaticogastrostomy (EUS-HGS) is associated with a relatively high proportion of adverse events, and this is attributable to the lack of standardized protocols and specialized equipment. Although the outcomes of EUS-HGS may differ between patients with and those without surgically altered upper gastrointestinal anatomy, there have been no reports on this topic. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of EUS-HGS using our standardized method and to compare the outcomes between patients with and those without surgically altered upper gastrointestinal anatomy.